Passive Voice

Explanation:
It is common to use passive structures in academic writing because in many
cases, the agent (the person/people/organisation etc. who do/does the action) of an action is less important
than the action itself. You form the passive by using a form of the auxiliary
be (e.g. am, is, are, was, were, been, be) and the past participle of
a main verb (e.g. written, spoken, listened). Past participles are also
used in present perfect verbs; e.g. I have written an essay, and
are sometimes different from past tense verbs; e.g. I wrote an essay.

The data were gathered between June and August 2004.

Many books have been written about space exploration.

This medicine can be used only on patients who have no allergic
conditions.

Passive structures are impossible with intransitive verbs (which do not take
objects; e.g. arrive) as there is nothing to become the subject of the passive sentence
(e.g. Wrong: The party was arrived at by me.
Correct: I arrived at the party.). Stative verbs, which refer to states rather than actions, are also seldom used
in the passive.

The incident happened back in 1965. [This is correct, and is not
passive voice, as happen is an intransitive verb.]

The incident was happened back in
1965. [This is wrong.]

We lacked support from the government. [This is correct, and is not
passive voice, as lack is a stative verb]

Support was lacked from the
government. [This is wrong.]

Some other stative verbs are: seem, have, suit and resemble.

Exercise

Instructions:Choose the correct option from the drop-down boxes, then click the 'Show Answers'
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